“…to deny the ability of a tree
to inform and even instruct one’s awareness, is to have turned
one’s senses away… it is to ponder the tree from outside
of its world, or, rather, from outside of the world in which both oneself
and the tree are active participants.”

David Abram, The Spell of the Sensuous

Protesting
the destruction of old growth forests deepened my apprecation of the life
intrinsic to all trees. I joined and initiated grassroots efforts to protect
endangered trees in the GTA with little expectation of preventing their
demise, only the hope of heightening public awareness.

I stood between trees and men with
screaming chainsaws. Trees that groaned as they let go their roots. Boles
and outstretched boughs thundered to the earth where the ground shuddered
and quaked from their impact. The sweet salty smell of spilled sap shocked
my senses with its poignant similarity to our own blood and tears. Engulfed
in a silent void, where no birds or animals dared remain, the sensation
of loss overcame me. My initial empathy developed into a physical and
spiritual kinship with these stoic monoliths.